Dunno if this violates rule 3 but here I go: I am a 21 year old male currently living with a family member, I only have a DL and a High School Diploma and nothing else. I’m in the deep south so trade unions are hard to get into. I have a disqualifying condition so I can’t join the military. Getting a job is difficult because they never respond. Question in title.
Not sure if it’s helpful, but pivotal steps in my career path involved unintentional networking.
Started working at a call center reading scripts and calling it “tech support” from that job I made friends with a coworker with a similar interest in computers. A few years later he was working in-house IT for a major company and referred me.
A few years in that field and I made friends with another coworker who got me interested in scripting / coding. A few years later after meeting that friend, he was working as a software developer and referred me to my first coding job.
Once my foot was in the door I would learn and grow in each position until I felt like I stopped growing my skillset and I would find a new job where I could build new skills.
It helps that I have a genuine interest and enjoyment in learning and improving my skills. Computers and technology just happened to be the skillet that people started to pay me for. I could have just as easily ended up a machinist, contractor, chef or any other profession sparked by a personal interest of mine.
This. It doesn’t matter how competent you are. It’s all about connections.
Could I start making connections here?
Making connections is everywhere, here as well as at a grocery store ( for example), because you start talking to someone and you never knows what will happen. Do what you like to do or react to any post or irl talks. You will may be not get work, but making you known works in the long run. Especially if you do good job, people remembers you.
Technically yes, but the community on Lemmy is very small and pretty widely globally distributed, which are suboptimal characteristics when you’re presumably not going to have an easy time just dropping everything and moving to somewhere random in the world at a moment’s notice because you met a person there and they think they might have something for you, even if that’s something you might like to do it doesn’t mean it’s practical. That said, it is possible, but you’re going to have to put in a lot more effort that way.
You’ll have a lot better luck (and honestly, it IS about luck, so repeating the same patterns over and over again until you get a different result IS a viable strategy) finding some local connections within your community. Sure, virtual/remote work is a thing in some fields, but even for that there are still obstacles based on national borders and languages that are going to further limit your choices even beyond the very significant limitation of only being able to apply for virtual/remote positions in those specific fields that are suited to it.
The biggest thing you can do though is to have or start to learn some kind of skill or competence at something, and be able to demonstrate that in front of others. If you have nothing else to work on, develop those social skills; those will get you further than any piece of paper will without them. If family and friends aren’t helping, find communities or organizations or even neighbors that need something, anything, and offer to help, volunteer. Never pass up an opportunity to work with someone if you can find it, the things you’ll learn from them while doing that work are more valuable than any paycheck if it’s something new to you. And once you’ve at least made some progress in either learning or demonstrating some level of skill or competence, start dropping the hint and mention that you’re looking for a job. May go nowhere, may not get any reaction at all, but every time you get any reaction, that’s a potential door opening. You likely will not get an immediate job on the spot, it may be that you’re just planting seeds that need some time to grow, but just keep on planting until something happens. Do everything you can think of to be memorable, connectable, approachable and accessible, try to make sure people remember you or at least your skill when they come across a role that needs filling, and make sure they will know how to get in touch with you if they do.
As with any kind of success, it’s 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, you just gotta pound pavement, force yourself to get out there even when you feel like you’re failing, talk to people, learn everything you can, seize opportunities to learn or do any kind of work you think you can. And the more you show you’re willing to work, people will find things for you to do, skills for you to learn, and ultimately places for you to work and the money will start flowing. Just start doing work, and chat to people either during the work, or about the work, or something. You can’t escape the social aspect, even if you’re an introvert or a wallflower, that’s how we make connections and the connections are part of it. The details, the skills, the specifics all don’t matter as much as you think, and the rest will figure itself out naturally as long as you keep showing up, making noise, and not hiding or being invisible.
I mean , a minimum competence is the bar. I’m not recommending someone who is going to make me look bad if they get hired. But if you’re ok and my friend, I’ll recommend you and it’s more likely you’ll be hired over someone really good, but who doesn’t know anyone.
Oh for sure.
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You’re 21, and I didn’t realize this until I was like 32, but you don’t need a career yet. You need a job. The career will come from… Doing the jobs you want to do instead of your actual jobs.
when I worked at a liquor store like a decade ago, I stayed away from the registers unless it was necessary and no other work had to be done. I organized the entire overstock room and opened up another 300 sqft of storage in the process. I commented on processes that seemed inefficient and suggested improvements.
When I worked in breweries, I stayed out of the front of house. I started scrubbing tanks and finished an operations manager.
When I worked in IT support, I pointed out insecure practices and suggested secure practices. I’m now in cybersecurity.
I didn’t wanna work in a liquor store. I didn’t wanna scrub tanks. I didn’t wanna answer phones. So I… Didn’t. Unless I had to.
Just go get a job and find something there no one is doing that has value. Then lie on your resume by changing your title to match your duties.
Heres my 37 year old adhd fueled emoloyment experience with no higher education. Not sure what the fuck DL is but it gives insight to your intelligence for assuming anyone will know what the fuck DL is so the list is adjusted accordingly. Take tons of adderall so my work ethic is amphetamine driven and it usually took 3 to 5 years to go from zero experience to hitting a ceiling. Only career paths I didnt progress all the way thru is nursing but gave example of path every nurse I know took who made a career out of it amd advanced their education. Each degree level comes with massive pay increase opportunities. The highest ceilings are Nursing, Procurement and IT. The most secure single certification lifelong careers Linesmen and Machinist. Fastest career path to the grave or being/feeling like youre famous: chef.
Machinist: 3 month certification class. Employers often pay for the class if you agree to work for them on completion.
CNA: 3 month cert. Again, enployers often cover course costs. Good experience towards, which employers also usually offer tuition reimbursement, nursing degrees which have very high ceilings d3pending on type of nursing degree you have. Can go for 2 years, work, need more money, go for 2 more years, work for more money, need more money, go to school for 2 more years, work for more money… Basically all the way from LPN up to Nurse Practitioner who are basically doctors.
Linesman: 2 year degree. Union. Work for local electrical department with government pension/benefits.
IT certs from Cysco: cheap, free courses available, most places will accept in place of degree fields without paying outrageous tuition for degree.
Classically trained chef: apply to any metropolitan restaurant, work your way up from dishwasher to sous chef with no prior education or experience. Must be able to handle high stress high demand work environment. Must be extremely competitive and good at doing drugs and drinking.
Procurement: basic understanding of relevant software and commercial purchasing. Starting employment usually begins with incoming sales and processing orders.
What’s your deal? DL is obviously “drivers license”, lmao.
Why is that obvious?
Because next to having a pulse, the ability to drive and get yourself to a workplace is literally the most important qualification for any job you could ever do, and it’s typically a question on entry level job applications.
Maybe for where you live but not for my neighborhood.
DL means Drivers License, a quick google search would’ve told you that
Just think of it this way, if a guy who doesn’t know and can’t figure out what a “DL” is can get a job, you’ll be fine.
1st search results is acronymfinder with 116 results for DL. Fuck off lol
Do what generation after generation of people have done: move to find opportunity. There are plenty of places where the economy is active enough that you aren’t caught between union gatekeepers and starvation.
Learn a trade? Do you like working with wood, metal, electronics? Gardening? Construction?
The best advice I can add to what has been given already is to just try out a few things and feel if something resonates. You can ask companies to go along for a day to see how the work is done to learn, help them for a day without pay to learn, for instance.
Does take some initiative and social skills, can lead to a nice career.
To add to this with my own anecdotal experience: I got into a trade at 18, right outta high school. Had mediocre high school grades, and decent college grades for electrical. Got a job in a place I didn’t wanna work for about a year, but made good connections and got good experience. Used that to get a job in my home town, and literally jumped from job to job, or was able to keep my job through intense layoffs by being a good bullshitter.
Some of the best advice I ever received was “it’s not the grades you make, it’s the hands you shake”
Get into something that might interest you, and network with people. Networking for me from a trades background as a young guy got me a work from home job doing IT in my 30s.
Best of luck mate, you’ll figure it out. Time is on your side, just don’t be idle for too long if you can help it. Older you will thank you.
This is the correct answer. Also, try to find areas where there is a labour shortage. Those might not be the most attractive options but it may be a way to get a stable job with a decent income.
That is so young to worry about a career. What jobs have you been applying to? There are other ways to get into trades, if that’s what you want. Or just working at the grocery store, they seem to want to promote men so much more than women. All the managers at the ones around here started as baggers, all are dudes. If there is a Whole Foods, they have programs to learn butchering, cheese mongering, pizza making, baking.
But get a job first, any job. My kids all started out working at the skating rink, crap job but it’s so much easier to get a job when you have a job. Will your parents let you stay there and save money?
Try to apply to any/all Union apprentice programs. I think most only have open application once a year.
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Getting an associates degree can help you a lot if you have the ability to do so. There are a lot of medical jobs that you can nab with a 2 year degree. X-ray tech, cat scan tech, MRI tech, ultrasound tech, etc. You can also do back of house stuff such as medical coding or IT for hospitals. You can also get an associates in chemistry and work in a lab. You can work as an insurance actuary. Maybe look up what certifications your local community college offers. Certs usually lead to jobs.
If school isn’t in your budget yet, or just not your thing, landscaping is almost always hiring, as are construction jobs. They’re hard on your body, but it’s a job to start with. Someone mentioned trucking, a CDL is a great idea. Again, not easy work, but it’ll pay the bills until you feel like doing something else. Forklift certifications are good to have as well, although I’m not positive on how long those take.
You have a lot of options for sure, and you’re young. The world is your oyster, it’s just up to you to put in the effort.
You need to figure out what fields interest you and then get qualifications for it. The lack of response might be a CV issue, have someone you trust look over it and give you pointers. It’s okay to lie and embellish on a CV.
